Israeli strikes on Sunday evening targeted sites in central Syria’s Homs province, including Al-Chaayrate air base, killing two soldiers, Syrian state media reported. According to a military source quoted by the official Sana agency, the strikes reached “Al-Chaayrate military airport», killing two soldiers and injuring three.
Syrian air defensesintercepted hostile targets over Homs province“said Sana. Syrian state television broadcast footage showing the air defense systems intercepting “missiles of Israeli aggression“. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) reported explosions in the area of the regime-controlled Al-Chaayrate airbase, saying four missiles were fired.
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This area is home to military sites used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as well as Iranian-backed groups, including the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian territory since civil war erupted there in 2011, targeting government positions as well as Iranian-backed allied forces and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel rarely comments on its strikes on Syria, but has repeatedly said it would not allow its nemesis Iran to establish a foothold there. Israeli strikes targeting the Al-Shaayrate base on November 8, 2021 injured two Syrian regime soldiers, according to Syrian state media. At the end of October, four pro-Iranian fighters were killed during Israeli strikes on several positions near Damascus, said the OSDH, which relies on a vast network of sources in Syria.